YEREVAN, October 5. / ARKA /. Private remittances sent to Armenia in August 2016 through banks grew by 0.48% from the previous month to $146.3 million, the Central Bank said today. However, if compared with 2015 August their amount was down by 8.4%.

Remittances sent from Armenia abroad totaled about $60.1 million, an increase of 4.8% when compared to August 2015. Compared to July 2016 they were up 6.6%. Thus, the net inflow of remittances in 2016 August amounted to approximately $86.2 million, a decrease of 15.8% over the same period last year and a 3.4% drop if compared to 2016 July.

Russia accounted for approximately 68.8% of all remittances. In the past years, its share stood at 70-80%. More specifically, remittances from Russia in August 2016 amounted to approximately $100.7 million, an increase of 8.6% compared to August 2015 and a 5% increase over the previous month. Remittances from Armenia to Russia increased by 3.6 % when compared to 2015 August to $22.3 million, but if compared to July 2016 they were down by 2.7%.

Armenian Central Bank expects the amount of remittances to the country to drop by 6-8% this year from the previous year

In 2015 remittances slashed by 30% to $1.2 billion, largely due to huge devaluation of the Russian ruble. ($ 1 - 474.36 drams). -0-